Appellate

  • October 28, 2024

    Cleary Adds Northern Calif. Deputy Criminal Chief As Partner

    The deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California has joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP's Bay Area office as a partner in the Americas litigation practice, the firm said Monday.

  • October 28, 2024

    Va. Asks High Court To Reinstate Voter Rolls Purge

    Virginia asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to pause a district court order prohibiting the state from continuing a systematic removal of suspected noncitizens from its voting rolls this close to Election Day, arguing a federal "quiet period" law only protects citizens from last-minute changes to their voting status.

  • October 25, 2024

    5th Circ. Punts Musk Tweet Lawfulness, But Axes NLRB Order

    An en banc Fifth Circuit majority on Friday overturned a National Labor Relations Board decision that a tweet Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent during a United Auto Workers unionization campaign violated federal labor law, while the court's dissenting members criticized the majority's decision as "logically incoherent."

  • October 25, 2024

    Entergy Struggles To Challenge FERC Decision At DC Circ.

    The D.C. Circuit is set to decide whether or not utility giant Entergy will be allowed to challenge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's rejection of a plan that would change capacity market rules, after finding that it would give Entergy too much market power.

  • October 25, 2024

    NEPA Rail Ruling Backers Flood Justices With Amicus Briefs

    Former federal officials, states, Colorado cities, two law schools and 30 members of Congress are all urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a ruling overturning federal approval for a rail project to haul crude oil out of Utah, rather than reinvent the National Environmental Policy Act as project supporters propose.

  • October 25, 2024

    Va. Takes Block Of Voter Purge Program Straight To 4th Circ.

    The state of Virginia lodged an immediate appeal at the Fourth Circuit on Friday after a federal judge said the state can't continue a voter removal program so close to Election Day and must re-register those already purged.

  • October 25, 2024

    2nd Circ. Denies BNP Quick Appeal In Sudan Refugee Suit

    The Second Circuit rejected BNP Paribas SA's attempt to immediately appeal a New York federal judge's May ruling certifying a class of Sudanese refugee plaintiffs in litigation accusing the bank of funding the former Sudan government's human rights violations.

  • October 25, 2024

    Apple-Google Pact Plaintiff Stuck With 9th Circ. Appeal

    A Ninth Circuit panel has refused to let a training school send its case accusing Google of paying Apple to refrain from developing its own search engine back to district court in light of a recent D.C. federal judge's decision that Google monopolizes the search market.

  • October 25, 2024

    9th Circ. Backs 7-Year Sentence Over Chip Exports To China

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday upheld the seven-year prison sentence imposed on a former University of California, Los Angeles, electrical engineering professor convicted of illegally exporting high-powered semiconductor chips to China, saying the district court did not err in holding that the conduct amounted to an evasion of national security controls.

  • October 25, 2024

    Fla. Bar Seeks 2-Year License Suspension Against Klayman

    The Florida Bar is asking the state's high court for a two-year license suspension of conservative activist attorney Larry Klayman due to alleged ethical violations in another jurisdiction, saying a more than reciprocal term of punishment is needed in the Sunshine State because Klayman continues to dispute the findings.

  • October 25, 2024

    DC Circ. Could Nix OK Of $8M Equatorial Guinea Award

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday appeared willing to consider nixing enforcement of an $8 million arbitral award against Equatorial Guinea issued in a dispute over an ill-fated hospital operating contract, even as the panel spent much of a hearing focusing on the impact of a decade-old U.S. Supreme Court decision.

  • October 25, 2024

    Shoplifter's Probation Pot Ban Upheld By Mich. Appeals Court

    A Michigan appeals court on Thursday ruled that, notwithstanding the state's legalization of recreational cannabis, a woman who pled guilty to shoplifting violated the terms of her probation by smoking marijuana while it remains federally illegal.

  • October 25, 2024

    Yale, Travelers Beat Conn. Age Bias Appeals

    A Connecticut appeals court on Friday declined to revive claims that Yale University and Travelers Indemnity Co. committed age discrimination with job postings seeking "recent" college graduates, reasoning that the court that threw out the cases properly interpreted state high court precedent.

  • October 25, 2024

    AT&T Unit Continues To Argue FCA Does Not Apply To E-Rate

    Congress could have designed the E-rate program to be distributed by the government using its own money, but it didn't, and that's why reimbursements under the program don't qualify as claims under the False Claims Act, an AT&T subsidiary has told the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • October 25, 2024

    'Open AI' TM Owner Asks 9th Circ. To Nix Injunction

    A man accused by OpenAI of preventing the ChatGPT-maker from registering its name as a trademark urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to vacate an injunction blocking him from using the "Open AI" mark while his case is pending, arguing he's the mark's senior holder and calling the injunction "extraordinary and unprecedented."

  • October 25, 2024

    VLSI Urges Fed. Circ. To Punish OpenSky After Vidal Didn't

    U.S. Patent Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal vowed to sanction OpenSky Industries "to the fullest extent of [her] power" for filing a bad faith patent challenge, but then imposed sanctions that, if anything, rewarded the misconduct, VLSI Technology has told the Federal Circuit.

  • October 25, 2024

    Split Mich. Panel Won't Revive Janitor's Burn Injury Suit

    A divided Michigan appellate panel has declined to revive a former manufacturing plant janitor's lawsuit over a workplace explosion that left him severely injured, with the majority saying the case is time-barred by a statute of limitations clause in his employment agreement.

  • October 25, 2024

    Premera Rejection Seems Sparse, 9th Circ. Judges Say

    A Ninth Circuit judge pressed Premera Blue Cross on Friday to defend refusing coverage for a Washington teen's lengthy mental health residential treatment, questioning if the insurer engaged in a meaningful dialogue as required with the youth's family in letters explaining why the treatment was medically unnecessary.

  • October 25, 2024

    Gloves Come Off In Wash. High Court Race As Election Nears

    A high-powered civil litigator vying for an open seat on the Washington State Supreme Court says his municipal judge opponents' expertise is primarily relegated to traffic tickets, as that judge decries the critique as legal snobbery symptomatic of a greater disconnect in the judiciary.

  • October 25, 2024

    State AGs Back Mich.'s Immunity From Enbridge Pipeline Suit

    Nine states and the District of Columbia have told the Sixth Circuit they back Michigan state officials' arguments of sovereign immunity from a lawsuit Enbridge Energy LP filed over the state's revocation of an easement for a segment of the company's Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.

  • October 25, 2024

    SEC's Crypto Mining Case Belongs In 10th Circ., Court Hears

    A Utah man accused of defrauding crypto mining investors out of $18 million is hoping for an opportunity to have his case heard before the Tenth Circuit, arguing that the mining equipment is not a security and that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should be forced to drop the suit.

  • October 25, 2024

    2nd Circ. Says Man Can't Challenge Removal Over Atty Failure

    The Second Circuit on Friday denied a man's bid to reopen removal proceedings based on his former attorney's failure to submit important documents, saying the man should have provided evidence supporting his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel earlier.

  • October 25, 2024

    Off The Bench: Toss-Up For Ohtani Ball, UFC Fighters' Payday

    In this week's Off The Bench, the three claimants to a historic baseball now know how much is at stake for the winner, a long fight against wage suppression for mixed martial arts fighters is a step closer to ending, and WNBA players want a bigger piece of a growing revenue pie.

  • October 25, 2024

    Mass. Panel Flips Teacher's Tenure Denial Over Family Leave

    Massachusetts' intermediate-level appeals court on Friday invalidated an arbitrator's denial of tenure to a teacher who took maternity leave during one of her first three years of teaching, ruling that the decision had wrongly penalized her for taking the protected time away from work.

  • October 25, 2024

    5th Circ. Says Immigration Board Defied Haitian's Due Process

    The Fifth Circuit has revived a bid by a Haitian man with a history of mental illness for removal protection, saying the Board of Immigration Appeals violated his due process rights when it ordered unnecessary fact-finding, flouting its own regulations.

Expert Analysis

  • Insurance Lessons From 11th Circ. Ruling On Policy Grammar

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in ECB v. Chubb Insurance, holding that missing punctuation didn't change the clear meaning of a professional services policy, offers policyholder takeaways about the uncertainty that can arise when courts interpret insurance policy language based on obscure grammatical canons, say Hugh Lumpkin and Garrett Nemeroff at Reed Smith.

  • How High Court Ruling Is Shaping Homelessness Policies

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson to allow enforcement of local ordinances against overnight camping is already spurring new policies to manage homelessness, but the court's ruling does not grant jurisdictions unfettered power, say Kathryn Kafka and Alex Merritt at Sheppard Mullin.

  • DOJ Paths To Limit FARA Fallout From Wynn's DC Circ. Win

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    After the D.C. Circuit’s recent Attorney General v. Wynn ruling, holding that the government cannot compel retroactive registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the U.S. Department of Justice has a few options to limit the decision’s impact on enforcement, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Challenges Loom For PBGC Actions

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    After Loper Bright, two recent actions taken by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. already under scrutiny seem destined to be challenged and resolved under the new standard of judicial deference, which will greatly affect employers with potential withdrawal liability exposure, say Robert Perry and David Pixley at Jackson Lewis.

  • Unpacking Executive Privilege, Contempt In Recent Cases

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    The U.S. House of Representatives’ recent move to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress is the latest example in a growing trend of executive privilege disputes, and serves as a warning to private citizens and corporate leaders who are in communication with the president, says Kristina Moore at Womble Bond.

  • Gilead Drug Ruling Creates Corporate Governance Dilemma

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    If upheld, a California state appellate court's decision — finding that Gilead is liable for delaying commercialization of a safer HIV drug to maximize profits on another drug — threatens to undermine long-standing rules of corporate law and exposes companies to liability for decisions based on sound business judgment, says Shireen Barday at Pallas.

  • Class Action Law Makes An LLC A 'Jurisdictional Platypus'

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    The applicability of Section 1332(d)(10) of the Class Action Fairness Act is still widely misunderstood — and given the ambiguous nature of limited liability companies, the law will likely continue to confound courts and litigants — so parties should be prepared for a range of outcomes, says Andrew Gunem at Strauss Borrelli.

  • 3 Notes For Arbitration Agreements After Calif. Ruling

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    After last month's California Supreme Court decision in Ramirez v. Charter Communications invalidated several arbitration clauses in the company's employee contracts as unconscionable, companies should ensure their own arbitration agreements steer clear of three major pitfalls identified by the court, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Jarkesy Ruling May Redefine Jury Role In Patent Fraud

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    Regardless of whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jarkesy ruling implicates the direction of inequitable conduct, which requires showing that the patentee made material statements or omissions to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the decision has created opportunities for defendants to argue more substantively for jury trials than ever before, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

  • 3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture

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    Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.

  • Ore. Insurance Litigation Is Testing The Bounds After Moody

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    Despite the Oregon Supreme Court’s attempt to limit application of its 2023 decision in Moody v. Oregon Community Credit Union, which for the first time awarded extracontractual damages stemming from alleged negligent claims handling, recent litigation shows Oregon insurance companies face greater exposure, says Sarah Pozzi at Cozen O’Connor.

  • How Justices' E-Rate Decision May Affect Scope Of FCA

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s eventual decision in Wisconsin Bell v. U.S., determining whether reimbursements paid by the E-rate program are "claims" under the False Claims Act, may affect other federal programs that do not require payments to be made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, says David Colapinto at Kohn Kohn.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Don't Let Loper Lead To Bank Compliance Lull

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    Banking organizations are staring down a period of greater uncertainty over the next few years as the banking agencies and industry navigate the post-Chevron world, but banks must continue to have effective compliance programs in place even in the face of this unpredictability, say Lee Meyerson and Amanda Allexon at Simpson Thacher.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.

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